Chapter 1: Why Study Theatre
Theatre mirrors the society that encompasses it.
It is the fifth century B.C. A hillside near a town in Greece has been modified into an open-air auditorium. The citizens of the town leave their homes early in the morning, before sunrise, and assemble on the hillside. A group of men stand about at the base of the hillside. They are dressed similarly, they wear masks which give them an even more uniform appearance, and they speak in unison. They praise the god of fertility and ask him to bless their crops in the field. They praise the god of fertility and ask him to bless the women of the town with many healthy children. They tell the god’s story; it is their own. One of the men of the chorus steps away from the others and stands so as to draw the audience’s attention to himself, individually. He speaks in a clear voice, “I am Dionysus.” Magic happens. The man is not Dionysus, yet we accept him as Dionysus. The act of theatre has begun.
It is the sixteenth century A.D. The banquet hall of the king’s estate has been decorated with several platforms, each containing a different setting for this evening’s entertainment. Following an extravagant meal, the performance begins. The performance is allegorical, drawing characters and situations from myth and legend, but the parallel to the king is obvious to everyone in attendance. The performance is punctuated with wonderful songs and dances exalting the king. His glory is their glory.
It is the middle of the twentieth century, New York. Residents of the city, as well as visitors to the Big Apple, have gathered in a theatre and taken their seats. The lights dim. The curtains open on the stage, and the stage lights brighten, exposing what appears to be the back of a two-story house in the suburbs. The stage floor appears to be covered with backyard grass. There is an actor, approximately 60 years of age, sitting in the backyard, reading the Sunday paper. As the world outside the theatre slowly recovers from the devastation of World War II, the actors on stage act out a story which reminds the audience that everyone in a society is responsible for the war and the effects of the war.
Theatre mirrors the society that encompasses it.
We study theatre because theatre studies us, as a society, as a collection of societies, as one generation gives way to the next. The plays written by Aeschylus 2,500 years ago are still performed today. Today’s performance tells us something about Aeschylus’ time, but it also tells us something about our own time. It reminds us that the human race hasn’t changed much in two and a half millennia.
Theatre mirrors the society that encompasses it.
The ancient Greek society gave birth to the western idea of civilization. The plays of the ancient Greeks examined the ideas and behaviors that separate civilized communities from barbarians.
The ancient Roman society experienced leisure time like no society before them, and they filled their idle hours with entertainments designed to delight, amaze, and awe them.
The Europeans of the nineteenth century saw a shift toward industrialization in their communities. The plays they produced attempted to define Reality. The Europeans of the early twentieth century saw the absurdity and insanity of a world at war. The plays they produced declared the end of Truth.
Theatre mirrors the society that encompasses it.
We study theatre in two broad categories: the dramatic literature which was and is produced, and the production techniques which were and are used to produce the performances. This introduction to theatre will provide an overview of both categories, but we will give greater attention to the literature (because what you are reading is a literary text). We will briefly examine the history of drama and of theatre, and we will look at the general groups of producers of theatrical performances (the playwrights, the directors, the actors, and the designers). The performance techniques will always represent a time or an era, that time or era in which a particular technique was used. The dramatic literature will also represent a time or an era, but we will find that great dramatic literature often spans generations, centuries, even millennia. Great drama touches on those ideas and themes which make us uniquely human, and so the texts continue to speak to society long after the writers have faded into dust.
Theatre mirrors the society that encompasses it.
We study theatre as a means of learning more about ourselves.
Narrative of an Early Theatre Event
Imagine yourself in Athens, a city-state, in the fifth century BCE (though you don’t call it the fifth century BCE). It is a time when civilization is still young. Groups of humans have bound themselves together for safety and commerce. The world is vast, filled with peoples and nations all very different from each other. We are the civilized ones; all the others are barbarians. (The fact that they think the same about us does not concern us today.)
The day is beginning. A crowd of people has been gathering on the hillside since before the first hint of daybreak. Now, there are perhaps several thousand people here. You are here too, sitting about half-way up the hillside. You are facing east, looking across a valley and beyond to the horizon which is slowly growing lighter as the sun approaches.
(Remember, the world is essentially flat. The sun is the bright chariot of a god, pulled across the orb of the sky by a team of supernatural horses.)
At the base of the hillside, a wide, circular area has been cleared. This area is known as the dancing place. It is also the threshing place where the grain is separated from the chaff at harvest-time. The wide, circular area is hard ground made hard by the generations of dancers and threshers who have trodden here. On the side of the dancing place opposite the hillside, there is a stone structure which provides a visual backdrop to the dancing place. While the audience has been gathering on the hillside, the performers have been gathering in the stone structure (or scene building).
A large group of about fifty performers begins to file out of the scene building and into the dancing place. They are dressed alike, and their movements indicate that they have spent many long hours practicing together. They are fifty individual men who move, and then speak, as one.
Kind voice of heaven, soft-breathing from the height
Of Pytho rich in gold to Thebe bright,
What wilt thou bring today?
Ah, Delian Paean, say!
My heart hangs on thy word with trembling awe:
What new-given law,
Or what returning in Time’s circling round
Wilt thou unfold? Tell us, immortal sound,
Daughter of golden Hope, we pray, we pray!
First, child of Jove, Pallas, to thee appealing,
Then to sweet Artemis, thy sister, kneeling,
Who guardeth our fair land
With blessing from her hand,
Throned o’er the circling mart that hears her praise,
And thou, whose rays
Pierce evils from afar, ho! come and save,
Ye mighty three! if e’er before ye drove
The threatening fires of woe from Thebe, come today!
For ah! the griefs I bear
Are endless; all I have is out of gear,
And not a weapon near
To fray this hated pest from hearth or hall.
Earth’s blossoms blasted fall:
Nor can our women rise
From childbed after pangs and cries;
But flocking more and more
Unto the western shore,
Soul after soul is seen to wing her flight,
Swifter than quenchless flame, to the far realm of Night.
The performance continues throughout the day. The performers come and go as their scenes are played out before the assembled crowd. The audience members sit patiently and watch the performance. You all know the story well; it is part of your culture and history. You come together not for the novelty of the performance, but for the tradition and cultural enrichment of the performance. This is your theatre. This is your culture. This is your story.
Narrative of a Contemporary Theatre Event
My wife and I had traveled to San Diego on vacation. While we were in town, we noticed that the Old Globe Theatre was offering The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare in performance. We made reservations and went to the theatre.
The Old Globe Theatre is a complex of three performance stages located in the Balboa Park region in San Diego. The weather was lovely and cool. We parked about a quarter-mile from the theatre complex, near the organ pavilion, and walked through the Balboa Park area to the theatre.
When we arrived at the theatre complex, my wife went into the gift shop while I headed over to the snack bar for a Diet Coke. My wife found a number of educational books and materials for elementary-age school children – tools for helping introduce school children to the richness of Shakespeare’s writing. While she shopped, I stood outside, enjoying the cool evening, the Diet Coke, and watching the people arriving at the theatre complex for the evening’s performances.
Some couples were dressed semi-formally; others, couples and individuals, were dressed more casually. Some people were attending performances at the two indoor stages, and some of us were preparing to see The Taming of the Shrew in the open-air theatre space. We were dressed more casually and more warmly since the temperature was expected to drop as the evening wore on.
About twenty minutes before eight, the box office personnel and ushers opened the theatre for seating. I finished my drink, joined my wife in the gift shop, and we discussed whether we wanted to rent a blanket for additional warmth during the performance. We decided we would be warm enough without the blanket. We gave our tickets to the box office person and moved into the theatre to find our seats.
I like to enter a theatre early, as soon as the house opens, because very few theatres still use curtains. Entering early and finding my seat, I’m able to spend time reading through the program and observing the details and design of the set. For this particular production, they had built a raised platform similar in effect to what we believe Shakespeare’s Globe Theater would have used. Shakespeare’s plays have often been produced with design concepts other than traditional; it appeared that this performance was going to present a more traditional design.
My wife likes to read through the program. She reads the biographical information about the actors and designers, as well as the advertisements for local businesses which support the theatre arts in their communities. I like to watch the people. And I noticed that a single man took the seat next to me. His demeanor and attire gave me the impression that he was a theatre-person, maybe an actor, maybe a director. Like me, he seemed to observe the stage design carefully.
At eight p.m., the ushers made a quick sweep through the auditorium and identified a number of single or double seats that were still empty. They waved to the back of the auditorium and held up one or two fingers, and late-comers rushed to fill the empty seats. The late-comers were actually the bargain-hunters, for they snatched up the available seats for a discount price at the last minute, first-come-first-served, only-when-available basis.
Then, just before the performance was about to begin, there was a disturbance down by the stage to our left. Some guy had come to the theatre intoxicated, and he was causing a commotion. The ushers tried to get him under control, but they were unsuccessful. This guy jumped up on the stage! Some of the actors, who were waiting in the wings for their first entrance, came out to try and help control the drunkard. And somebody called security. While the actors were wrestling the guy to the ground, the Balboa Park security patrol drove in on their little golf cart.
Then the guy passed out. Everyone was trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. One of the actors had an idea. As he got everyone’s attention, he spoke. “What think you, if he were conveyed to bed, wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, a most delicious banquet by his bed, and brave attendants near him when he wakes, would not the beggar then forget himself?”
The performance had begun. Those of us who knew the script, recognized the words of Shakespeare, in the Induction of the play – a part of the play typically cut by most directors since it has nothing to do with the play about Petruchio and Katherine (the Shrew).
This director had chosen to tie the Christopher Sly (the Induction) story with the Petruchio/Katherine story. And here’s how he did it. He situated the drunkard (Christopher Sly) in a stage left balcony to watch the performance. Then, when it was time for Petruchio’s entrance, there was no Petruchio. The play stopped again as the actors tried to figure out how to proceed. The Christopher Sly actor leapt onto the stage from his balcony seat and persuaded the other actors to let him take the part. They agreed, and the play continued.
I was impressed. And I noticed the guy next to me taking mental notes. (Really, I did.) This is how traditions get started.
The stage directions for Act II, scene 1, have Kate and Bianca enter at the beginning of the scene – Bianca with her hands tied. For this production, Kate chased Bianca onto the stage; Bianca’s hands were not tied. The two sisters had a bit of a fist fight, and Bianca got a couple good shots in on Kate before Kate managed to get her younger sister’s hands tied. Ah, I thought, the director is letting us know early on that Bianca isn’t as sweet and chaste as she wants us to think.
And the guy next to me made another mental note. (Really, he did.)
The production utilized traditional Elizabethan costuming and stage properties (furniture, cups, books, musical instruments, etc.) which were appropriate to the historical period. The lighting and sound supported the production without drawing any undue attention. The actors’ voices were clear, and they delivered Shakespeare’s lines with flexibility and naturalness. It was a lovely evening of theatre.
After the performance, we gave the performers a solid round of applause. The actors took their bow with grace. As my wife and I exited the theatre, I noticed that those who had rented blankets were dropping them off with the box office personnel.
Night had fallen, and the evening was cool. Many of the audience had parked in the same area, and we shared the sidewalk as we headed back to our vehicles. Then my wife and I upheld a long-standing theatre tradition of our own – we went out for coffee and dessert.
the Importance of Theatre in Our Society
Theatre is an examination of humanity. For more than 2,500 years, dramatists have examined the human condition. Each play script which has survived in some way describes the human condition and society in which the script was originally developed, and it somehow speaks to later generations and other cultures because it touches on universal elements of being human.
Theatre is a celebration of humanity. For more than 2,500 years, dramatists have celebrated the human condition. We have worshiped our gods, ridiculed our kings and presidents, wept for our neighbors, laughed at our neighbors, and engaged our fears. We have questioned and engaged the mystery of the invisible reality that intermingles with the visible reality – what happens when we die and/or are we alone in the universe? We have strengthened our oneness and honored our diversity.
Theatre is a challenge to humanity. For more than 2,500 years, dramatists have challenged the human potential. Theatre has exposed our weaknesses and faults for public examination. Theatre has exalted the potential of the individual and of the culture/society. Theatre has examined different philosophies and religions and governmental polices from different perspectives in an attempt to help us all be better.
Theatre is a form of entertainment, encouragement, and social commentary.
I believe theatre is the greatest of the arts because it incorporates all the arts together into a single, unified performance. Visual art, music, dance, literature all come together in a theatrical performance. Carpentry, sewing, painting, electrical, and business and personnel management all come together in a theatrical performance. Theatre is a team/community art form.
And there is a place for everyone somewhere in theatre. Involvement is as easy as volunteering to help with your local school or community theatre group. Every type of skill or trade is needed somewhere in theatre. Every personality type can find a place to serve. Whatever your interests and/or skills, theatre can be a place where you can grow and develop and find a home.